Passport Chief arrested over procurement irregularities investigation

Kathmandu – Director General of the Department of Passports, Tirtharaj Aryal, has been arrested in connection with irregularities in passport procurement. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) apprehended him.

Aryal was detained as part of the CIAA’s investigation into irregularities in passport printing. According to CIAA sources, Foreign Ministry Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai and contractor Siddhartha Thapa are also under investigation.

CIAA sources indicated that suspicions of irregularities in the procurement process for e-passports and related materials by the Department of Passports prompted the investigation. During this process, Aryal was taken into custody for questioning and further evidence collection.

The investigation focuses on significant manipulation under the guise of “variation” in the e-passport procurement and printing contract. Allegations have surfaced of setting up an offshore company in Singapore to evade taxes and facilitate capital flight, while inflating costs under “variation orders” has allegedly imposed billions in additional burdens on the state.

In 2020, when the Department of Passports called for international tenders for e-passports, personalization machines, and enrollment systems, the French company IDEMIA secured the contract at approximately $10.13 per passport.

By mid-2022, despite having a stock of over 400,000 e-passports in the department’s warehouse, the Cabinet decided to issue a variation order to IDEMIA to print an additional 2.8 million passports instead of opting for a new competitive tender.

As technology prices fell globally, the average cost in a 2025 tender for new e-passport procurement dropped to about $8.53 per booklet. Experts suggest that excluding system costs, the booklet price should be less than $7. By continuing procurement at the old rate through variation, the state lost an additional $3 to $4 per booklet, resulting in a financial burden exceeding 1.5 billion rupees.

Siddhartha Thapa and others are implicated in managing IDEMIA’s operations and intermediary networks within Nepal.